Lasting Bond
by AADale
Summary: a story from Ukitake's past - short summary I know but I don't want to spoil it - an origin story
1. Chapter 1

Usual disclaimer.

/

The students at the Shinigami Academy were all supremely confident in themselves. They were sure that they'd attain bankai one day, and rule with the power and prestige of a captain. They delighted in their own advancement, and although they closely tracked each other's progress, each of them secretly indulged in the fantasy that he was the third-best in the class. Third? Well, yes, because they all had to admit that they were no match for Shunsui and Ukitake. Those two were amazing.

Shunsui and Ukitake had such spiritual pressure for young people, and displayed a natural talent for each aspect of training. They outpaced the rest of the class easily. They were model shinigami, despite having such different personalities. Shunsui (no one called him by his last name) was outgoing, improvisational, lecherous, lazy. Ukitake (no one called him by his first name) was noble, serene, a hard worker and a natural leader.

The two men played off each other. Ukitake gave Shunsui a chance to shine. He was always there to look on in amazement at his friend's antics. And Shunsui's absurdity made Ukitake look that much more refined.

But the sharper classmates noticed that their personalities weren't so different after all. Shunsui never let on about it, but he worked as hard as anyone. And Ukitake was quite a charmer in his own right. He didn't let the pursuit of women dominate his life the way his friend did, but he never lacked for female company.

Yamamoto tried to treat all the students equally. If he paid more attention to his two star students, it was because they were always advancing. Each new technique was first demonstrated to Shunsui and Ukitake, and the others picked it up by watching them. And it just made sense that he'd put more effort into training them, since they were certain to both end up as captains. Even among these elite, competitive fighters, no one resented Shunsui and Ukitake.

But one of them was bound to improve a little faster than the other, and as it turned out, Shunsui attained shikai first. Not just an ordinary one, either. The flashy young soul reaper had an ornate daisho set, two blades which after their initial release now existed as two separate swords. He wore them proudly on his belt, and walked with even more swagger than usual. He didn't become conceited, exactly, but was quick to show off his zanpakuto at any opportunity.

And so it was that, a month after he first released them, he was sparring with his best friend on the practice field outside the Shinigami Academy. He was fighting left-handed. Ukitake was growing impatient.

"Come on, take a shot at me", Ukitake said, as he countered his opponent's moves. "You're too slow left-handed."

"I need to practice this way as well", he said, taking a wide arc against his opponent.

Ukitake blocked it effortlessly. "A lot of good that does me. I need practice too, you know."

They leaned into each other's blades, trying to break the other's stance through pure strength.

"Well," said Shunsui, "perhaps you can practice on _this_!" He spun, unsheathing his second blade as he did so. He snapped his body around, and thrust the blade forward, intending to just graze his lanky friend's hair.

Ukitake reacted on instinct. He raised his other hand in defense. To both their surprise, there was a second blade in Ukitake's hand as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Shunsui was waiting excitedly at the entranceway of the Academy. Yamamoto had been away for more than a week, fulfilling his other duties as captain-commander of Soul Society. There had been a terrible encounter in Africa. The captain of the Twelfth Division was dead, along with his lieutenant and about a third of their officers. It was a Menos Grande. Yamamoto personally travelled to the World of the Living to destroy it.

Shunsui filled him in on all that had happened during his absence. Ukitake had attained an amazing shikai. He had already discovered its powers. (The abilities of Shunsui's weapons were proving much harder to pin down.) Ukitake was waiting in the practice room to show Yamamoto his new skills.

The eldest soul reaper entered the room with Shunsui close behind. Ukitake held his swords in a combat stance. They were fascinating, a cutting edge on the front and a hooklike secondary blade on the back. However, it wasn't the zanpakuto that caught Yamamoto's attention, but the look in Ukitake's eyes.

"You're finally here!" Ukitake said. He made no bow or gesture of respect. "Let's see what you can do against these, old man!"

Yamamoto drew his sword. He stepped forward, and took an initial swing at Ukitake. The thin student responded fast with a swing of his own, connecting with Yamamoto first. The captain-commander was knocked back. Not much, but enough that he had to regain his footing.

"You're slow, old man! How about some kido?" Ukitake was practically taunting him. Calling their sensei "old man" was something they only did behind his back. Shunsui didn't know what to make of this.

Yamamoto held out his hand and said "thirty-one". A bolt jumped from his hand toward Ukitake, but the student blocked it with one blade and released a kido blast of his own from his other. The kido connected, but a level 31 hit wasn't enough to harm the captain-commander. He took another swing, this one fast. Again, Ukitake responded instantaneously. No, it was even faster than instantaneous. Yamamoto's eyes grew wide.

"Time magic?"

"That's right, old man. I'm hitting you with as much force as you've got, before your blow even hits me. That's the power of my zanpakuto!" Ukitake laughed.

Ukitake stepped forward and swung his right hand in a nasty strike against his commander. Yamamoto blocked it, but the moment before he did so, Ukitake's left blade responded.

Now even Shunsui was getting worried. This wasn't mere showing off. Ukitake was actually trying to harm Yamamoto.

Yamamoto said, "Way of Binding Number 55". The senior soul reaper was instantly hit by the barrier. He watched closely as it happened. One of Ukitake's weapons would absorb the hit, and the other one would relaunch it before it ever struck.

"See that? You've got nothing! I can destroy you, old man!"

The captain-commander spoke. "Time magic is forbidden by the council. The punishment for its use is death."

Ukitake responded with another attack, this one kido. Yamamoto blocked it with his sword.

He continued, "Just as the swordsman must brace his feet to swing a weapon, the user of time magic must set a portion of his consciousness outside time in order to wield it. This acts as the fulcrum for his attack. However, the mind is not capable of residing in that state. It drives the user into madness."

Ukitake shouted, "so what are you going to do about it, old man? Do you think you can touch me?"

Yamamoto invoked another binding spell, but Ukitake's magic overwhelmed it. A look of concern spread across the old soul reaper's face. Ukitake was displaying great power. Any conventional attack would simply be volleyed back at him. Sword, binding, it didn't matter. In order to fight time magic, he would need to either use an attack that didn't move through time and space, something that changed the molecules of matter themselves, or something so far beyond Ukitake's spiritual pressure that not even this time magic could counter it.

Yamamoto sighed. This would be the end of his Academy: the building, anyone in it or nearby, and even the whole idea of the Academy would likely not survive this. He had no choice.

"Reduce all creation to ash, Ryujin Jakka!"

Yamamoto shot a quick look at Shunsui. The student was briefly paralyzed by the first wave of the shikai's energy, but understood the warning in that look and threw himself out into the hall, then out of the building. Then the crackling energy behind him burst and he lost consciousness in the tremendous impact of fire.


	3. Chapter 3

This was only the second time Shunsui had met the legendary Retsu Unohana. The first time was a year ago; he had had the audacity to flirt with her, but she had ignored it. This time she was standing in one of the long hallways of the Fourth Division's headquarters and hospital. It was 36 hours since the encounter between Ukitake and the captain-commander. Shunsui had been bandaged up, his left leg in a cast and gauze around his ribs and abdomen. He nodded to the female captain.

"Captain, how is he?" he asked.

"He's alive. You can go in if you'd like."

The two entered the room where Ukitake lay, bandages across most of his body. The rust color of dried blood spotted his bandages. His face was covered except for openings for his eyes and mouth. Even through that tiny gap, the look of shame in his eyes was apparent.

"The damage to the skin and flesh was severe. He's going to take him a long time to recover from it. But what worries me the most is his lungs. The captain-commander's shikai heats the air to an impossibly high temperature. Your friend breathed that in. There's nothing I can do for the damage. I doubt he'll ever be able to breathe properly again."

Ukitake moved a bit. It looked as if he wanted to speak, but instead coughed a little.

"He's tough", Shunsui said, "he'll get through this." The two of them knew, however, that no amount of healing was likely to spare Ukitake from his fate. He had struck against the captain commander. He had used time magic. His life was forfeited. The young student and the captain stood silently in the room for twenty minutes, watching over the injured man. Then they felt the spiritual pressure of the leader of Soul Society approach. Shunsui dropped to one knee as the door opened.

Yamamoto entered the room and slowly approached the bed, a most serious look on his face. "Your zanpakuto", he said to the patient.

Ukitake could barely move, but he brought his hand upward and summoned his blade. Yamamoto took it. He made a low grunting noise, and the zanpakuto assumed its shikai form.

Urahara and Shunsui exchanged a quick glance. They didn't know Yamamoto could do that.

The old man held one blade in each hand and began to speak. Shunsui couldn't make out the words. He couldn't even hear them, so much as feel them. They were heavy, old words, some kind of magic that Shunsui hadn't even known existed. Yamamoto continued to speak and the room grew brighter, fuzzier. There was a sudden flash. When Shunsui's eyes adjusted, he saw the captain-commander still holding the blades, but now there was a cord connecting them, a red cord lined with medallions.

"The blades are sealed", Yamamoto said. "They are bound together now within space and time. Your zanpakuto's power is greatly diminished. If you ever remove that cord, I will kill you without hesitation."

He placed the blades on Ukitake's bed next to him.

"I have never…" The captain-commander started again. "You have been given a second chance. Prove to me that you were worth it."

He turned and left the room.


End file.
